Waivers
What are Florida's HCBS waivers?
- Developmental Disabilities Individual Budgeting (iBudget) Waiver
- Florida's single IDD waiver — 'iBudget Florida' — run by the Agency for Persons with Disabilities under AHCA's 1915(c) authority. It gives each participant an individual budget with flexibility to choose medically necessary home-and-community services. Eligibility requires a qualifying developmental disability with onset before age 18 (intellectual disability, severe autism, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, Prader-Willi, Down syndrome, Phelan-McDermid, or high-risk ages 3–5).
- Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long-Term Care (SMMC LTC) program
- Florida's long-term-care HCBS for elders and adults with disabilities runs through managed-care plans rather than a standalone waiver brand — AHCA administers it, DCF determines financial eligibility, and the Department of Elder Affairs determines medical eligibility and level of care through the CARES assessment, with its own prioritized wait list.
- Florida calls its IDD waitlist 'pre-enrollment' (s. 393.065(5), Florida Statutes). Seven statutory priority categories order enrollment offers — crisis first, then child-welfare involvement, intensive needs, aging caregivers (60+) with no alternate, school-leavers within 12 months, then everyone else — with dates of eligibility determination ordering within categories.
- Scale, honestly dated: a Florida House staff analysis (March 2025, citing APD's own quarterly report) put the pre-enrollment list at 21,471 people as of December 1, 2024; APD's live application page currently says 'more than 23,000 individuals waiting' without a date. Florida was the one state that did not respond to KFF's 2025 waiting-list survey.
Agencies
Who runs services in Florida?
- Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD)
- Determines developmental-disability eligibility, runs iBudget Florida and the pre-enrollment process, and handles applications and crisis enrollment through regional offices.
- Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA)
- Florida's Medicaid agency — holds the federal waiver authorities and administers Statewide Medicaid Managed Care.
- Early Steps (Florida Department of Health)
- Florida's early-intervention program: services for infants and toddlers from birth to 36 months with delays, disabilities, or at-risk conditions, at no cost to families.
Aging parents
Caring for an aging parent in Florida
- Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Long-Term Care (SMMC LTC)
- Florida's long-term care for people “age 65 and over and eligible for Medicaid” or “age 18 and over and eligible for Medicaid by reason of a disability”, who CARES determines to be at nursing-home level of care. Twenty-six services are covered where medically necessary or needed to delay nursing-facility placement — among them personal care, adult day care, adult companion, home-delivered meals, respite, case management and assisted-living services. Florida Department of Elder Affairs — SMMC LTC program (as of 2026-09)
- Where to start: the Elder Helpline, 1-800-96-ELDER
- The Department of Elder Affairs directs families to “the statewide Elder Helpline at 1-800-96-ELDER for immediate assistance” or to their local Aging and Disability Resource Center. ADRC staff certified by the department perform the screening and place people on, and release them from, the pre-enrollment list. Florida Department of Elder Affairs — SMMC LTC program (as of 2026-09)
- How the list actually moves
- Not in the order people joined. By statute the Department of Elder Affairs prioritizes people “using a frailty-based screening tool that results in a priority score”, and that score sets the order of release from the pre-enrollment list; the date you joined breaks ties only between identical scores. People with a high priority score are rescreened annually or on a significant change, and the department must publish the scoring methodology on its website. s. 409.979(3), Florida Statutes (pre-enrollment list, release and offer process) (as of 2026-09)
School
What's specific about IEPs in Florida?
- Florida's official term for special education is Exceptional Student Education (ESE), administered by the DOE's Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services.
- The Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities (FES-UA) gives families of students with disabilities — as young as age 3 — an education savings account usable for private tuition, tutoring, and other approved services.
Common questions
Common questions about care in Florida
- How long is the iBudget waitlist in Florida?
- Florida calls it pre-enrollment. A March 2025 House staff analysis put it at 21,471 people as of December 1, 2024; APD's own page says more than 23,000 without giving a date. Enrollment offers follow seven statutory priority categories, crisis first.
- How do I get Medicaid long-term care for my aging parent in Florida?
- Call the Elder Helpline, 1-800-96-ELDER. The local Aging and Disability Resource Center screens your parent for the SMMC Long-Term Care program; eligibility is 65 and over on Medicaid, or 18 and over eligible for Medicaid by reason of a disability, plus a nursing-home level of care determined by CARES.
- Does the Florida long-term-care wait list move in order?
- No. State law has the Department of Elder Affairs prioritize people with a frailty-based screening tool that produces a priority score, and that score — not time on the list — sets the order of release. The date of placement is used only to break ties between identical scores.
- What is Florida's word for special education?
- Exceptional Student Education (ESE), run by the Department of Education's Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services. The Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities gives families of students with disabilities an education savings account from age 3.
Sources: APD iBudget Florida (as of 2026-07) · APD pre-enrollment (as of 2026-07) · s. 393.065 F.S. (priority categories) (as of 2026-07) · FL House HB 1103 staff analysis (pre-enrollment count) (as of 2025-03) · FLDOE Exceptional Student Education (as of 2026-07). General information, not legal or benefits advice.